Former bp CEO to Lead Prometheus Hyperscale

Bernard Looney, former CEO of bp, has been appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Prometheus Hyperscale, having held a role as non-executive Chairman at the company since 2024.

The move comes as the data centre developer looks towards a phase of growth as it plans the development of two hyperscale centres in Wyoming to meet growing demand for compute capacity. 

He will replace founder Trenton Thornock, who plans to remain involved as an Advisor and Board member. 

Discussing the appointment, Trenton says: “With the wealth of knowledge and operational experience gained from his three decades at one of the world's largest energy companies and the invaluable role he has played advising the company from its earliest days, there is truly no one better qualified than Bernard to take us into our next chapter.”

Responsible scaling

Bernard first joined Prometheus Hyperscale in 2024 after an abrupt departure from bp over a failure to disclose past relationships with colleagues to the board. 

He held the role of CEO from 2020 to 2023, and spent more than 30 years at the company, beginning as an engineer and leading some of the company’s largest global energy projects. 

Upon his appointment as Chairman in 2024, Bernard shared that he had joined the company to advance its mission to develop sustainable data centre infrastructure and meet growing technology demands. 

“Data centres often add to the local community’s power needs and can drive up electricity costs,” Bernard said via LinkedIn. “People worry that instead of helping, AI may slow the transition and move us backwards.

“The opportunity to address these challenges is why I’ve joined Prometheus Hyperscale as Chairman.”

Upon his appointment as CEO, Bernard shared that building AI infrastructure is “crucial” as AI and digital technologies “reshape our world.”

He continued: “Trenton's vision that Wyoming would become a centre of AI infrastructure positioned Prometheus at the forefront of next-generation data centre development. 

“I am honoured to be in a position to continue to benefit from Trenton's wisdom and counsel, and to work alongside the Prometheus team to lead the company through its next stage of growth.”

Developing digital infrastructure

As CEO, Bernard will advance Prometheus Hyperscale's growth – including two data centre campuses in Evanston and Casper, Wyoming, which total approximately 2.5GW and more than $30B in capex.

The company has said it will deploy a number of low-carbon technologies for its Evanston campus to help power it, while it plans to “design and finance high-density compute halls” for its Casper campus, using non-consumptive water cooling systems to maximise energy efficiency. 

“As Prometheus' projects advance, Bernard is exactly the right person to lead the company as we work to develop some of largest data center projects in the US,” said Trevor Neilson, President of Prometheus Hyperscale. “I am grateful to Trenton for his visionary leadership to date and am looking forward to working alongside Bernard to bring the vision to life.”

The Casper project is one of the most significant digital infrastructure initiatives in Wyoming's history, with a multi-phase buildout planned to deliver up to 1.5GW of IT load, while generating hundreds of construction jobs and long-term technical positions.